A Lament Prayer: I Hate Death
You, God, who made the heavens and the earth and have promised to remake them, hear my voice.
I plea for a hearing because you often seem so distant to me and sometimes I fear that you do not listen. Awake, O God, and hear my prayer for I struggle once again with death. Death has again invaded my world.
God, I hate death. I trust that you hate it, too. Death is my enemy; it is your enemy as well. It rips apart the very fabric of peace, hope and trust. Where are you in the midst of death, O God? Why, O Lord, do you stand so far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
How, God, does death bring any meaning to your world? Would it not be better…would it not be to your glory…that you would rescue us from death so that we might praise you in the land of the living? Where is your praise in the grave? Is your steadfast love declared in the grave?
Lord God, every death raises questions about you, about the meaning of life, and your purposes. I confess that I cannot answer them, and “every death is a question mark”*. Death is like a fog that blinds me.
How Long, O Lord? Will you forget us forever? How long must we have sorrow in our hearts every day? How long must we live with these questions, doubts and tears? When will you rid us of this shroud?
God, take your hands out of your pockets and do something! Arise, O Lord, and destroy this enemy. Redeem us, O God, according to your unfailing love!
God, you are my God, and I entrust my life, including my eventual death, to you.
- I confess that you, Father, are the maker of heaven and earth.
- I confess that you, Jesus, were born of woman, lived among us, died with us, rose again for us, and now reign at the right hand of the Father interceding for us.
- I confess that you, Spirit, are present to transform us and comfort us.
I confess the story is not yet over, and that you, God, will yet rise up and destroy the enemy, and you will give birth to a new world without death and without tears.
Rise up, O God, and give birth to your new world. Create your new world, Father. Comfort us, O Spirit, and come back soon, Lord Jesus.
Amen.
Given in the Gathering (Lipscomb University Chapel) on October 1, 2013 in Nashville, TN in mourning over the death of Isaac Phillips.
*From the song “Come Back Soon” by Andrew Peterson on his “Lost Boys” album.
October 1st, 2013 at 5:22 pm
Thank you for once reminding us of the validity of lament as prayer. May God console the bereaved who mourn the loss of Isaac.
October 2nd, 2013 at 7:33 am
We lament the deaths of all whom we love. With sighs too deep for words we bury their remains in the earth . . . and yet we may offer to God thanks and praise that we do not live forever in this flesh!
To be forever trapped in our decaying flesh in this hellbent world of sin would be unthinkable. As we lament death, we do well to recall that death is the consequence of our sin, our separation from God, and that our journey toward God, in faith and hope, shall at last cleanse us, heal us, and liberate us from the the burden of decay and give us victory over death. It is a victory that God alone can give.
God’s Peace to you.
d
October 2nd, 2013 at 2:03 pm
Indeed, I would not want to live forever in this Adamic flesh, but I groan for the new world in which we will live in a Christic body without corruption, mortality and impurities.